Small Plane Missing Near Ottawa Airport

Two people are dead after a Cessna Cardinal 177 plane crashed in a field near Ottawa's MacDonald-Cartier airport south of the city Wednesday evening.

Emergency crews were dispatched to search for the four-seater aircraft at about 7:30 p.m. after reports that a plane had crashed near the airport.

The Cessna 177 was later located in a field off Leikin Drive near Paragon Avenue, according to Ottawa police. A broken wing was also located nearby.

The two deceased were the only ones aboard the flight. Their identities have not been released.

A flight path navigator showed the flight left Wilkes-Barre, Pa., around 5 p.m. on its way to the general-aviation airport at Carp, about 40 kilometres west of the crash site. The aircraft was registered to an owner in Gatineau, Que., CBC News has learned.

Fire crews searched for the plane within a three-kilometre radius of the airport, and a water-search crew was dispatched in case the plane had landed in water.

Emergency crews on foot and on all-terrain vehicles had also combed nearby fields in the area, trying to locate the Cessna.

The plane had hit a hydro pole, knocking out power for some south Ottawa residents for a time. Electrical service was restored late Wednesday night, but some wires were still spread in the field, police said.

Merivale Road was shut down between Prince of Wales Drive and Fallowfield Road during the evening and remained closed through 10:30 p.m.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada spokesman Chris Krepski confirmed there are two investigators assigned to the crash.

The first Cessna 177s were built in the 1960s. The single-engine plane has enjoyed a long reputation as a valued and popular aircraft among amateur pilots. The 177B version, introduced in 1970, has a cruising speed of 230 kilometres an hour and a range of about 1,120 km.